Boehner Move to Speaker Progresses Smoothly

Republican Rep. John Boehner is hitting the ground running in his move to House Speaker for the next Congress. The transition has proceeded more easily than many pundits expected, The Hill reports.

Boehner has smartly vowed to fly commercial, pushed the attempt to ban earmarks and avoided divisive leadership battles. While Democrats have squabbled over who will occupy their top leadership positions, an anticipated struggle for Republican majority whip between Reps. Kevin McCarthy and Pete Sessions never happened. McCarthy will run unopposed after Boehner persuaded Sessions to stay on as head of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

“There hasn’t been that sort of dissension in the Republican Party, in part because Boehner has worked with the tea party,” says Thomas Edsall, a professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.